Jackie Aina’s New Palette Controversy Proves Her Point About Racism

Instagram/jackieaina

Jackie Aina is a force of nature. The popular influencer is fabulous, fierce, and calls out racism in the beauty industry whenever she sees it. She recently unveiled her new Anastasia Beverly Hills eye shadow palette, which she designed expressly for darker skin tones — and now, you guessed it, white people are accusing her of racism. Wait, what?

People are calling her racist because of one shade name in particular.

Courtesy of Anastasia Beverly Hills

Aina's palette contains a shade called Wiggalese, which the brand describes as "metallic cranberry red." It's a reference to wigs; Aina is fond of wigs and wears them in bright colors. Wigs have long been a part of black beauty culture.

Some white people made Wiggalese all about them.

Jackie Aina trending....sad part is shes a racist biggot who I'm shocked ABH is supporting...also read deep in her palette, name that stand out is the word Wiggalese who is just racist AF when u remove the 'lese' from it but yea since its Jackie shell get a pass....

— ~LuKa~♡ (@MaMeLuKa_) August 4, 2019

Naturally, some white people found a reason to be upset about a black woman's success. Twitter user @MaMeLuKa_ decided that Wiggalese is a reference to the slang term "wigger", or a white-passing person that appropriates black culture.

Aaaand more white people felt slighted. *eye roll*

In order for her to avoid any potential legal issues and to avoid backlash from the public perhaps. Don’t get me wrong, I respect her hustle but for some reason for me this just doesn’t feel like she’s talking about wigs.

— Micromanage Bish (@liquidsunshine1) August 5, 2019

SIGH. The white people think Aina is racist. They do. They really, really do.

I won’t be buying the @ABHcosmetics collab since I don’t support bigots (Jackie).

— ???????????????????????? ???????????????? ???????? ???????????? (@littlesipsoftea) July 31, 2019

I’m guessing it’s a spin on “Wi*ger”? I’m sure she’ll try and spin it as something about wigs and call ppl racists who thought otherwise.

— JaclynsFirstFace (@FaceJaclyns) August 5, 2019

It seems like Jackie Aina is not happy unless she has something to he unhappy about. Life is too short to watch to people who make everything negative or part of an agenda.

— Scraggle D (@Scraggledy) August 6, 2019

Lots of reasons why I wasn't going to buy the @jackieaina x @ABHcosmetics palette but after this "wiggalese" umm who's the real racist? Sounding a lot like "*igga please" and as far as I knew "wigga" is a "mean" word towards white people. #NoDoubleStandards #LookInTheMirrorFirst

— AnaMaria (@ChapinaMasBella) August 8, 2019

Let's go back to Sociology 101.

GIPHY/Logo.

Racism = power structure + bigotry. This racism against white people, or "reverse racism," is not a real thing. Allow a black person to explain:

"We all have hardships, but as the demographic that has historically held all the power — and whose power has dictated the oppression of others — white people simply can’t be victims of racism. The idea of reverse racism is just a white person’s response to the threat of lost power — not real oppression," wrote Ludmila Leiva for Complex.

Aina's stans quickly leapt to her defense — and laughed at the Caucasity.

YOOOOOOO ppl are actually calling Jackie Aina racist bc she named one of her eyeshadow shades “Wiggalese” I’m ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

— Hoesuke Higashikata (@digital_shawty) August 6, 2019

racists hate Jackie Aina so much they’re jumping through hoops talking about she used a “slur” in one of the names of the shadows (Wiggalese) for her palette. lmao if y’all don’t get

— tune (@viatunisia) August 5, 2019

Wow…I can’t believe SOME white people are calling Jackie Aina racist because she named one of the shadows in her ABH palette “Wiggalese”. If you actually watched the video on her YouTube channel you know why each shade was named a certain way.

— August 21st (Nat Turner reincarnated) (@DeeperThanThis) August 7, 2019

I assumed its called wiggalese because I believe she is of senegalese descent and she is a wig enthusiast

— Olivia Nicole (@BeautyDollLivin) August 5, 2019

LMAO imagine calling Jackie Aina a bigot. Like actually typing it and sending tweet. Delusion.

— LAUREN B. BROWN. (@RAGGEDYROYAL) July 31, 2019

Even ABH's Claudia Soare aka Norvina had to step in.

LMAO imagine calling Jackie Aina a bigot. Like actually typing it and sending tweet. Delusion.

— LAUREN B. BROWN. (@RAGGEDYROYAL) July 31, 2019

"It’s about wigs," Norvina wrote, replying to a joke tweet that mocked the accusations of reverse racism. "Also why would Jackie name one of her own shades …. nvm." She even confirmed that the shade names were approved by the brand's legal department. "We clear all of our shade names, palette names etc," she wrote on Twitter.

Aina has yet to respond to the white fragility drama.

View this post on Instagram

Naira Banks ????

A post shared by Jackie Aina (@jackieaina) on Aug 4, 2019 at 6:11pm PDT

Aina has not responded publicly to the drama, and did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed. Presumably she's too busy counting her checks. If you want to consume white tears and give Aina your money for her stunning palette, it retails for $45 and is available now at Anastasia Beverly Hills' online store.